A Spartan strategy: Ars reviews Halo Wars

Halo Wars brings the world of Halo into the RTS genre, with better-than- …

Creating an RTS title and setting it in the world of Halo may seem like a cheap way to make some cash, but the Halo series has long enjoyed a deeper backstory than many realize. If you've read the enjoyable—if pulpy—novels and noticed how many recognizable units and vehicles the past Halo games have contained, creating an RTS experience starts to make sense. Plus, when you see your first Spartan in the game, accompanied by the series' music, it's hard not to get pulled back into the experience. In short, Halo has the depth to mine for a game of this kind.

Besides, why not try to create a real-time strategy game for the consoles, built from the ground up to use the Xbox 360's controller? While nothing will ever beat the mouse and the keyboard for granular control of your units and base, Ensemble did a bang-up job with the controller. With a little practice and a tutorial, you'll be able to jump around the battlefield, select your units, and send specific commands with ease. So why does it feel like Halo Wars is barely half the game it could have been?

Title

Halo Wars

Developer

Ensemble Studios

Publisher

Microsoft

Price

$59.95

Platform

Xbox 360

The game takes place across fifteen missions in a human-centered campaign that weaves a pretty decent story, even without Master Chief. You will have Spartans fight both with you and under your control, and the units are powerful; watching a Spartan take control of a Covenant vehicle and having it fight for you is quite the thrill in the game. These battles between units make up the bulk of the game, as there is almost no base building or management.

You receive special, locked down areas on the map where you can build a base, and each base has a limited number of nodes on it where you can build factories, barracks, vehicle shops, etc. There are no units needed to grab resources, the more factories you have the more resources you have, and by blowing these up the enemy can limit your production. That's it. Each "base" is one building with other structures attached. There is some strategy that comes into it when you decide what to build and in what number, and defending your base is important, but you're going to have to wait for StarCraft 2 for any serious RTS action, it seems.

You can build different vehicles, use secondary attacks, and climb the tech tree by upgrading soldiers and vehicles, but all these things are much simpler than what PC gamers will be used to. That doesn't make this a bad game, or a lesser game-it just makes it a game that's much more focused on action than anything else. In fact, in multiplayer there is a "deathmatch" option that gives everyone a fully-built base and a wad of cash; this allows online matches to become simply a matter of building units and attacking each other. Depending on what you're looking for in a game like this, you're either disgusted or you're salivating.

The other issue that jumped out was the lack of a Covenant campaign. You can play as the Covenant during online skirmishes against other human players, and it would have been great to see some of the events of the game, if not other stories from the Halo world, from an alien set of eyes. I miss the days when you bought a game of this kind and got a full campaign for every playable race. Even StarCraft 2 is getting rid of this aspect of the purchase; Activision Blizzard is splitting the title into three separate releases, one per faction. You can argue about whether or not that's a cash-grab, but I'm going to sorely miss the ability to play a compelling story with each of the races to learn their tech tree and to simply enjoy playing the game and picking up strategy.

The lack of a Covenant campaign is annoying, but what's the real heartbreaker is the lack of a campaign with the Flood as a playable race. It's easy to see why it wasn't done: balancing a third race is a nightmare in terms of logistics, time, and budget. But when I think about what could have been if Microsoft threw some money and time behind this and did it right, I want to find a corner and cry. If you'll allow me a moment of "what could have been," the idea of this game on the PC with a mouse and keyboard, as well as three full campaigns for the Marines, Covenant, and Flood makes me a very happy gamer. I'm not saying the actual game that Microsoft released is bad, but it's just that with the right budget and time put into development, it could have been so much more.

It's a good time, but is that enough?

While it's easy to have somewhat unrealistic expectations of Halo Wars, what is there is some pretty good stuff. The controls work very well with the Xbox 360 controller, and with the proper practice you'll be flying around the map in no time. The units look good, in general, although I couldn't help feeling everything looked a trifle bland. There just didn't seem to be a ton of detail to the units or the vehicles, and since we already know what everything looks like from the graphically superior FPS Halo titles, the difference was more noticeable than it would have been with another property.

The missions are also smartly put together. You'll be defending civilians as they attempt to evacuate in a memorable encounter, and the action is suitably desperate-you'll grit your teeth through many sections. Without the fun and thoughtful work of "design the perfect base before branching out," the action better be stronger than other titles of this kind, and luckily Halo Wars keeps the pace moving very well. If you're social, you can also play the game's campaign with a friend via online co-op. Adjustable difficulty makes sure that gamers of different skill levels can be challenged appropriately.

Ultimately, I had a great time playing Halo Wars, and the music, presentation, and design all work together to let you know that you're playing a Halo title. Indeed, this is a world that works better in the RTS genre than anyone would have thought. Secondary objectives, a scoring system, and online play also give you plenty of reasons to hone your game and replay the game's single campaign, which makes the $60 price tag easier to swallow. Still, there could have been more here, and the cynical gamer in me knows that Microsoft was aware of how little they had to give us to get the sales they were looking for.

The Good

This is a Halo game through and through, and fans of the series will eat it up

Smart controls for the console

Missions are well designed, pacing is nearly perfect

Story fits into the world of Halo well, game includes timeline of events to make sure you don't get confused or to allow you to catch up